Thursday, April 30, 2009

Well not really, but we did manage to drive to the Cubs came on Tuesday night with Becky and Scott. Our original plan was to leave Brooklyn with the Tatham's, but their household has come down with the Swine flu (not really, and not really funny, I know!) so Brooklyn came with and took in her first cubs game!

Alright, I would have prefered it to have been at Wrigley, but at Chase field vs the Diamondbacks is a good alternative. You would have never guessed that the Cubs weren't the home team. Far more Cubbie fans then Dbacks. We headed out at the 8th inning since the game was a blow out and Brooklyn needed to get to bed. Great first Cubs game for my girl! Thanks Auntie Rey Rey and Uncle Andro for providing the proper attire for her first game!

About the walking...watching Brooks last week has rubbed off on Brooklyn. She's standing up on her own without assistance and will stand forever all the time. And since she's finally gotten comfortable and bored with that she's started to take steps on her own. Without coaching or assistance. She'll step around her immediate vicinity, but won't go long distance. She'll wobble here and there but will crouch down to sturdy herself. Alright does this officially count for her as walking? I am not completely ready for it, but Brooklyn's proven to do things on her own personal schedule. So I'm armed and ready for the bumps and bruising. I've got lots of kisses for the owies to come from the mishaps of learning to walk. Would it be bad of me to get her a helmet?

Her top 2 teeth finally decided to grace us with their presence over the last week or so. Brooklyn's done well with it well minus the extra dirty diapers and semi raw toosh....why does this happen with teething?! Brett and I noticed that about 4 weeks prior to the teeth actually popping thru is when Brooklyn goes thru her fussy spell and mimics a devil child for a day or so. Now we know!

Last night we had a belly full of laughs watching Brooklyn and Deuce interact. Deuce was giving Brooklyn some kisses and before we knew it, Brooklyn was leaning in to give Deuce kisses right back. We're still working on the lip pucker so in the meantime Brooklyn goes in for the kiss mouth wide opened. She thought it was hilarious! Laughing laughing laughing. Of course Brett and I were amused. I am so happy the 2 of them play well together, not so pleased that they share well though....

As Brooklyn continues to grow like the weeds in our front lawn we continue to put some more things away. We had 2 swings at our house for Brooklyn, one was up in our bedroom. It's been tucked away in the corner storing the extra decorative pillows. When I went to pull it out Brooklyns eyes lit up and this is the result.

She stayed in it for about an hour watching a movie....I almost debated keeping it out and not storing it for this purpose!

What we haven't been able to part with is her pink bouncy chair.

You see why! There has to be a weight limit on these! Granted, Brooklyn has yet to break 20 lbs, but still. She loves to cuddle up with her Fisher price learning puppy, which I call Chucky because I swear it's possessed. It goes off randomly and sometimes in the middle night you hear "touch my nose" or "hehehe, That tickles!" I can't wait till shes outgrown that, but for now she really is learning from it. She's figured out tummy and nose....

Friday, April 24, 2009

We need a barricade...(notice Brooklyn's silly face?! this is the response I get when I bust out the camara and tell her to smile....you'll see it alot!!!)

I need another pair of arms to for supervision when they attempt to climb stairs at the same time. Thankfully they were both sturdy so its just stand by supervision and Brett was at the top of the stairs bribing them to climb up and not down.

I would need 2 pairs of drum sets because the 2 of them both were banging away on the platform "making music"

And I would need two of every toy I got because even at this early of an age, one would play with one toy and the other wanted to play too. Thankfully they were both good about sharing, but it was definitely snatched back and forth from each other....

It was another WONDERFUL day with Brooks. I loved having him over. He helped me entertain Brooklyn so I was actually able to do some things, like fold laundry without a certain little monkey attempting to climb in the laundry basket or make a mess of my already folded laundry pile. Brooks is walking already and I loved watching him take all those steps with no fear, stumble and fall on his tush, but then get back up like its nothing. Brooklyn has taken his lead quite nicely. This afternoon she started to stand up on her own without the couch to help pull her up, or my legs and she just stood for I don't know how long. I normally stand with her and cheer her on, but this time it was for soo long I just turned and walked away because I lost count of how long. It't like no big deal to her. She has also gotten braver when it comes to taking steps now. She's taken a ton more towards me, but only 2 or 3 at a time. Maybe she will be walking by her 1st birthday! Thanks Brooks for showing her the way! I can't wait to have you over again soon... Hopefully Brett and his buddies will have the swing set up by then and we can play more outside!

My big little girl is 11 months old now and becoming more and more fun everyday!

Her hair is getting longer and here is my sad attempt at pigtails. Brett thinks she looks like Jim Carey from his "in Living Color" skits. I don't care, it makes mommy happy

We have also discovered the word "time out" at our house and have dedicated a corner for her to sit in. She was trying to test our patience and push some limits the other night with dinner and kept throwing her food off her tray and on the floor. Only when we would look at her really, just to get a rise out of us it seemed. So she made it to her time out corner. Of course it lasted a mere 5 secs because I can't keep an 11 month still in a corner without some sort of restraint, but she got the point because she wailed and wailed when she was placed there. Then today she took Brooks' blanket and froggy and sat in time out all on her own, so I guess she doesn't see it as punishment....

Friday, April 17, 2009

Alright, so Brooks just got picked up and it was an easy perfect morning with the 2 kiddos. Brooklyn is going to be bummed when she gets up from her nap and her boyfriend is missing. I'll have to keep reminding her that he'll be back next Friday. My biggest challenge was balancing both kiddos, one on each hip, past the security gate on top of the stairs and then make it down the stairs safely. That's nearly half my weight on my hips! Brooklyn and Brooks actually played together. They were pushing one of Deuce's squeaky balls around the kitchen while I made lunch, which I burnt the first cheese and turkey quesadilla I made because I was too busy snapping pics!

Anyway, Brooklyn was too distracted by staring at Brooks shovel his lunch in his mouth to even feed Deuce. She normally makes sure to share nearly half her meal with him. During lunch Brooklyn finally started to use her sign language that I have been trying to teach her. I was too busy getting Brooks cleaned up to notice Brooklyn whining for more food (a quesadilla and a container of peaches later...there's a reason she still has rolls and folds!) that when I finally looked up at her she was doing the sign gesture for more....or at least it looked that way. Who knows it could have been a fluke, but we'll still work on it! After I fed them their lunch they played well for a few hours, sometimes together sometimes in seperate areas of the room.

Brooks is getting over a little cold so he was happiest sitting on my lap reading books with me. Good thing Brooklyn wasn't in a clingy mood otherwise that may have been a challenge. Afterwards Brooks laid down for a nap and an hour later so did Brooklyn. PIECE OF CAKE! I loved having a playmate for Brooklyn over at our house. Can't wait til next week. Hopefully it goes as well as today.

This morning Brooklyn's buddy Brooks came over to hang out for the day while his Mommy and Daddy (Casey and Tod) went to work. I get to see what life would be like if we were to have had twins. Brooks is 2.5 weeks younger then Brooklyn so this would be the closest thing too it and I am sure my Mommy friends of Twins would say that my few hours spent with the 2 of them would not even compare to true life. So far soo good....as you can tell since I have time to even be blogging. Brooks came by at 7am, we fed him breakfast and played, woke up Brooklyn, who had a very cute and confused look on her face when I had Brooks on my hip when we greeted her. Let them play together...well sorta, they both played by themselves while keeping an eye out for each other.

What a big boy!!! Standing all by himself, hopefully he can show Brooklyn a few pointers....Brooklyn is not nearly as sturdy as Brooks. Brooks is younger and taking steps by the way....Brett trying to get ready for work but about to get attacked by the kiddos.

Then Brooks went down for his nap at 830ish, Brooklyn and I had breakfast and then played more. At 930 Brooklyn went down for her nap. I wiped down the kitchen counters threw in a load of laundry made a grocery store list for later this afternoon and here I am... blogging. Not so bad....so far. I'll let you know how the rest of the afternoon fairs.Stay tuned...

Monday, April 13, 2009

This afternoon Brooklyn and I picked up Daddy and took him out to lunch during his break. We ate at Joes Farmhouse Grill and enjoyed the 80 degree weather outside. Then this afternoon Brooklyn and I video chatted with Grandpa Hojo and Grandma Trini. Brooklyn performed all her new tricks right on cue for them and then ....get this....she took her first steps!!! Holy Cow, right? My parents were able to witness her first steps all the way in chicago, technology is great isn't it?! Now, I know it's a shame that she couldn't do it for Daddy, but she saved some footloosing for him later when he got home. She shocked me when I stood her up just to show my p's how well she was walking with assistance and then I let go to show them how she stood and then she took 2 steps for the chair and my chin dropped. I completely wasn't expecting that. Yay!, but at the same time....uh ohhhhhh... Will see how long it actually takes her to walk now, I wouldn't be suprised if it's still not a few months away. She just doesn't seem sturdy.

This evening I took Brooklyn out to enjoy the backyard and she loved loved loved being out there....even without any toys to entertain her. She was having a blast playing with the rocks and watching Deuce tear around the backyard. It was like watching a real greyhound dog race. So when I decided it was time to head back in, she threw a hissy fit. I put my foot down and took her in, but my little girl found her way right on back there.

Little Stinker!!!! And you can't really tell by the picture but once she got out there she was throwing her arms up and down with such glee and delight, she was quite proud of herself. I couldn't help but laugh....and think Oh lord, this is really gonna suck for Deuce since we have to lock the dog door back up now.

For Easter this year we really took it easy and were laid back about the holiday. We've had quite the crazy busy last few weekends between weddings and trips that we laid low this Easter. Since it was Brooklyn's 1st easter though I did make sure to throw together some Easter baskets for her....and of course Daddy and Deuce got some goodies too.

And yes, those are Doggie treats in the Easter basket. I only had 2 baskets laying around the house so Brooklyn and Deucer had to share one.

My project lately had been to collect things in our spare room that will eventually make its way to the attic. So today I finally put away Brooklyn's gymini mat, since it's really not age /developmentally appropriate now and if she can't climb on it she's not interested. It's been sitting in our bedroom for quite some time. So during Brooklyn's nap I packaged it back up and put it in the spare room. Well when Brooklyn got up from her nap she crawled right into the room and went right for the gymini. GO figure!

This happened with her bumbo chair and her bath tub also. Why does this happen? You think they don't care about something anymore and then you go to put it away and then all of a sudden they act like they can't live without it. Here is her pout face when I refused to take it out of the packaging....

About Me

Met in 2000, married ONLY 7 years later! Our marriage is blessed with 2 BEAUTIFUL little girls and their furry 4 legged big brother. Love living our lives one exciting day at a time and sharing our story with you